THE STORY of major emotional and economic crises in the
states, such as the return of the Loyalists and the campaign
for paper money, does not end the account of political strife.
Personalities in politics continued to play an enormous role. John
Hancock, George Clinton, and Patrick Henry wielded much
power in their states, partly as a result of their personal qualities.
In the annual elections of every state there were controversies
that can be described in many ways: struggles between ins and
outs, democratic and anti-democratic forces, farmers and merchants, debtors and creditors, easterners and westerners, speculators and taxpayers, townspeople and countrymen, religious and
irreligious. Lines formed and re-formed with changing issues and
the passage of time. Certain issues, however, had a broader
significance, as we have seen in the accounts of economic policies
to be adopted by state governments. Of equal importance were
the problems arising from the rapid expansion of the states and
from the relations of the states with one another.

The rapid expansion outward to the frontiers had long been
a source of conflict in colonial society. During the Confederation
that conflict took two forms. Men in older settled areas of the
frontier demanded that state capitals be moved away from the
coast, while continued expansion resulted in a demand for the
creation of new states within the boundaries of old ones.

The back-country citizens in virtually all the states east of
the Alleghenies had long wanted the seats of government located
nearer themselves, and this demand increased as the center of
population shifted westward from the seacoast. It was a long and

Notes for this page

Questia, a part of Gale, Cengage Learning. www.questia.comPublication information:
Book title: The New Nation:A History of the United States during the Confederation, 1781-1789.
Contributors: Merrill Jensen - Author.
Publisher: Vintage Books.
Place of publication: New York.
Publication year: 1950.
Page number: 327.

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